Brazil Day 5
My Dad had been in touch to say that he likes the Brazil dairy but asks why aren't there many pictures of me. Whilst naturally reluctant I guess he has a point so there are few photos of me in action on today's page. The families of other members of the group are also looking at the site so I hope I am including everybody. These photographs just remind me that I need to start getting fit and back on my diet when I get home but here they are anyway.
Me Margaret and Aalok in the clinic
I can't believe we are at day 5 already. Today was an amazing day. Everyone has now placed implants. We started the day with a planning session again, using the tracings as before. The rest of the day then was surgery. Margaret, Aalok and I had a patient who was having 6 implants. I did the surgery for one side and Aalok the other. Mine were two upper teeth which needed some bone added to the sinus in the cheek in order to get enough support for the implants. Aalok's side was more difficult but he coped with it brilliantly. The poor patient ended up with about 6 hours surgery just with local anaesthesia. In the end she was laughing and smiling. Brazilian people really are endearing.
My half of the case was supervised by Kelly again who is just amazing. She gives lots of positive reinforcement saying "You're a good guy!" with her Brazilian accent. She makes you feel great when she does that.
Kelly makes sure that I am scrubbing up properly
Aalok's half of the case was supervised by Prof Luís Otávio Palhari. This is....
THE MAN WHO CAN FIND BONE WHERE THERE IS NO BONE!
Not only that he will then place an implant in it in exactly the correct orientation and with what is known as primary stability, in other words 'stuck in firmly'. Aalok had a very difficult upper front implant to place where there was just a sliver of thin bone present. The Prof manipulated the bone and expanded it to squeeze an implant in. His English is limited but it doesn't seem to matter. We are still learning loads from watching him. Nadeem thinks he is the best in the world.
The Prof leads morning prayers. Everyone is really affected by this
In the afternoon it was Margaret's turn to operate. I was the "floater" for this one. We work in the team of three where one is operating and a second is the "scrub nurse". In other words this person is scrubbed up to assist in the patient's mouth. The third person fetches and carries but can only can help out in the mouth by looking and not touching. We are rotating these roles.
Margaret had another difficult case where there was limited bone. The Prof was involved again and performed another miracle. We all leant from this case. Nadeem and I were discussing that what separates the men from the boys is what you do when things don't go according to plan. The easy ones are easy and that's it.
Margaret's difficult afternoon case. At this stage it looks like an easy one because Prof has weaved his magic on it to get to here
We finished about 7.00 pm and got something to eat at the hotel. It's good to all get together at the end of the day. The only problem is that the weight of responsibility which I now feel for the website takes me away early!
It takes two people to get one person scrubbed. Here I am helping Margaret to get gowned and gloved
Nadeem says that tomorrow's cases are going to be more difficult again. We have cases where the patient needs 9 implants at one sitting. I guess we will split the case into two operators again.
More tomorrow, thanks for visiting the site.